Yara Sifri, a Palestinian-Canadian 17-year-old Massachusetts high school student, has raised nearly US$30,000 to create a science camp for disadvantaged young girls living in refugee camps in Amman, Jordan.
Sifri explains that SciGirls, the two-week summer science camp she created, was born out of her “passion for science.”
Mohammed Amin refugee camp is an unofficial camp in the Jabal Al-Natheef district in Jordan, so living conditions there can be dismal. Education opportunities can be rare, and once they arise they are usually given to boys rather than girls.
According to a UNESCO 2010 report, female scientists in Jordan make up 21% of the science community, much lower than the Arab world average of 35%
“I wanted to bring to these girls some of the opportunities I had in Montreal,” Sifri told <a href=” https://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-12/world/scigirls.jordan_1_science-camp-robotics-team-local-teenage-girls?_s=PM:WORLD “>CNN World.
Sifri’s summer science camp was possible with help from Ruwwad, a local NGO, which convinced parents in the conservative region to allow their daughters to go to the camp.
A total of 44 girls with the highest grades in science in school were selected for the camp. They are bussed back and forth each day during the two-week programme to the Jubilee Center for Excellence in Education, which is located in another part of Jordan.
“The girls will learn about robotics, they’ll do basic circuits and learn about solar panels and electricity. There is also a maths and chess component,” said Sifri.
The girls will also enjoy activities such as playing football and mural painting in-between.
While this is the first year SciGirls is held, Sifri plans to make it an annual event during the summer, when she travels to spend her school vacation with her grandparents in Amman.
“The girls will learn about robotics, they’ll do basic circuits and learn about solar panels and electricity. There is also a maths and chess component.”
Below you can watch a short video that Sifri and Ruwwad have prepared from the SciGirls camp.